It Happened One Night
by pearlchavez
Summary: In one night, a decison Zora makes changes the lives of Chad and Sonny forever...
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: It's been a while! I miss writing for this fandom, but thanks to university I have had nothing on my mind except essays. I'm taking a break and writing a story because this idea is just too good to pass up. It's a year since I wrote 'Chad with a chance of Alcohol' and I suppose I missed writing for the fandom. I like this story and it's based on 'Atonement', a film I have loved for such a long time. It's quite a complicated story to tell, but when I got this idea I just couldn't let it go. Please read/review and enjoy! :) **

**It Happened One Night**

They say a person's life can be changed in as little as a minute and with one decision you might think is insignificant. One night at the end of September in Condor Studios, the lives of all who dwelled there on the night LA experienced a rare blackout changed forever. Everyone knows what I'm talking about; the scandal involving the cast of both _So Random _and _Mackenzie Falls._ For a long time, we were all convinced that we knew what happened that night, but after the astonishing revelations of Zora Lancaster and Dakota Condor, we were left with a sour taste in our mouths after the fates of both Chad Dylan Cooper and Sonny Munroe. It's been four years since that disastrous night and I feel it's time to talk about what really happened that night.

"I still don't know why it happened," Tawni Hart explains, sitting in her expensive mansion located on the beach. She always swore that she wouldn't talk about what happened that night ever again, but after what happened to her co-star and rival, she's decided to speak. "I've spent years trying to understand why it happened and I just can't get my head around it. I always despised Chad, but I didn't hate him that much."

"I thought I knew what was wrong," Zora Lancaster tells us in the only interview she will ever give regarding the scandal. We all thought we knew what was wrong after her moving evidence, but when the truth came out this little girl was no longer a star in our hearts. "You have no idea how much I wish I had been stopped." Some say she's only saying this because of what's happened to the two people entangled in her web, but others say Miss Lancaster plans on spending her life atoning for what she did.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we? It was a hot day for the end of September, and both shows were beginning to rehearse for their holiday specials. Mr Condor is well known for his organisational skills and he insisted that no stars of his would be rehearsing an average special at the last minute. We couldn't get a hold of any of the Condors, but after what Dakota did, we can't blame the family for wanting to hide away. Anyway, it was a hot day and according to _So Random_ stars Nico and Grady, it was already tense without the heat.

"We were in competition with each other for the best holiday special," Nico explains, we met him and Nico on the beach near Tawni's house, not asking why the stars of America's former favourite sketch show refuse to speak to each other. "And we started arguing with the guys from _The Falls_ the moment we got in."

"They were being their usual stuck up selves," Grady adds, glaring and shaking his head thinking back on it. Already we can see a motive for the backlash towards Chad Dylan Cooper, but did anyone see what was to come?

It wasn't only the general cast that were at odds again, but everyone remembers the hostile attitudes of both Sonny Munroe and Chad Dylan Cooper on that day. Apparently when they saw each other for the first time that day, she shoved past him and he almost said something, but then looked to the floor.

"I didn't know what her problem was," Tawni tells us, trembling as she takes a sip out of her latte. Her response echoes that of every witness we asked. "They usually talked, well not so much talked as belittled each other, but it was their thing. I always told her that they were made for each other, but when I told her that day she was really upset and I never knew why."

"That was when I first got suspicious," Zora explains, looking away from us. We can't blame her; we wouldn't want to relive the experiences of being wrong, let alone being wrong and destroying people in the process. "She had a weird look in her eyes and she seemed jumpy."

The truth is contained in Sonny Munroe's personal journal, which was made public by Connie Munroe, who wanted the world to know the truth about everything that happened that night. It was that woman's bravery that finally revealed that Chad and Sonny weren't hiding a criminal secret, but one that many young men and women face at the age of eighteen. We were lucky enough to be given an extract explaining Sonny's 'jumpy' behaviour that day:

"_I heard Chad tell someone that he loves me. I didn't mean to hear it; I was about to walk into his dressing room when I heard him say it. He said 'It's damaging my reputation Janie! I can't look at another girl or even think of one because she is ALWAYS on my mind. I look forward to our fights. I love it when she puts me down, because she's the only one who'll do it. That's how I know; that's how I know I love Sonny.' It was strange, but the moment he said it, I heard myself saying I love him too. It just came out, without me controlling it and that's how I know. Like him, it's everything unsaid that makes me know. Well, when Janie walked out, she motioned for me to go in. I thought I might throw up and I was shaking. This was it. This was everything I had ever wanted since I was fifteen years old. When I walked into that room he would tell me. He would tell me everything._

_He didn't. When I walked into that room he went red and then gave me the same subtle nod and demeaning greeting. He knows I heard him, because Janie said my name. I think she meant to so that he could finally say it, but he didn't. Instead he made fun of my dress and he tried to have one of those arguments I was sure only masked what we really wanted. My heart wasn't in it. I thought when I was quieter he would realise what he had to do, but he hasn't said anything. I don't know what to think. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to feel. I should give up, but every time I look at him something tells me not to. I can't even talk to him. I can't even look at him."_

We were able to get Sonny's mom on the phone and she confirmed that her daughter called her up on that day telling her that she could barely look at Chad and was so glad they would be filming all day. No one can blame Zora for her concern because no one knew the truth, but when did concern turn into an overactive/dangerous imagination?

"It happened in the girls' locker room," Zora remarks, her eyes filling up with tears. Looking at this teenager, it's hard to imagine that she caused so much devastation with just a few words. "That was when I saw what I thought was something dangerous. I was so sure he was going to hurt her. I was so sure she was hiding something from us. I didn't know the real reason she was so strange with him."

"What did you think you saw?" I ask her, knowing that it's the penultimate question and the one she doesn't want to answer. She's worried that I'll slander her further and she's worried she's going to look like an idiot, but one must wonder whether it was all a big misunderstanding.

"Sonny was taking a shower, probably to get her mind off things and I was walking about alone because I wasn't too good with the whole social interaction thing," she tells us. it's true, rumours have always surfaced regarding the secluded attitude Zora Lancaster had compared to her more outgoing and attention seeking co-stars. It used to be an endearing characteristic, but in light of the truth the rumours have gotten nasty. "And then I walked into the girls' locker room to get my music player and that's when I saw them. I saw Sonny standing there with her towel on the floor, just standing there even though everything was exposed, and Chad looking at her in a way I've never seen him look at anyone."

"They didn't see you?"

"No," she shakes her head, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I was going to scream. Dakota Condor was having a tour of the place once again and she and her tour guide were close by. I wanted to scream, but when I opened my mouth, Sonny stormed out and Chad was close behind her."

"Did they say anything?"

"He said 'sorry! I'm sorry Munroe!'" She replied, in the same tone I suspect Mr Cooper spoke in. Zora said he was tugging at his blonde locks. She also said that Munroe turned to face him with a look of 'pure disgust and confusion' and said; 'you are perverted! Why do you look at me like that and not say anything? Leave me alone! Just leave me alone!'

"That was when I knew there was a real problem," Zora sighs, probably thinking back to when her mind made the ultimate decision: she was going to prove that Chad Dylan Cooper was a pervert and her dear friend was the victim of his sick games.

"I didn't know any of that was going on," Tawni Hart shrugs her shoulders, looking uneasy. It isn't easy for her to talk about and I assume she probably wants to lay it to rest. She knows the truth implicates her and she doesn't want to be involved. "Sonny came into the Prop House almost crying, but she wouldn't tell us why. Zora didn't say anything either."

"We asked her what was up and we even performed a little sketch to try and make her feel better, but she wasn't having it," Grady explains on the beach, sighing.

"When I tried to hug her she pushed me away and told me that no one would make her feel better," Nico said. I've always suspected he carried a torch for his bubbly co-star and the way he looks remembering how she didn't want him at her time of need confirms my suspicions.

Sonny Munroe and Chad Dylan Cooper didn't see each other for the rest of the day and according to their co-stars they didn't say a word about what happened in the girls' locker room. Sonny Munroe once said that she should have said something, because 'it would have cleared up a hell of a lot'. Instead she rehearsed scenes and pretended there was nothing wrong. Apparently Chad Dylan Cooper took the same approach, which only made Zora more suspicious and as she played back the same scenes in her mind; their hostile attitudes, his lingering stare, her freezing and dropping her towel, him running after her looking ashamed and her calling him the 'P' word, it all seemed to make perfect sense. He was sick in the head she needed to take him down.

"I shouldn't have told Dakota, but she saw me all sad and she thought it was because she was here and I wasn't about to make her day," Zora laughs, but I know she doesn't think it's funny. She knows she shouldn't have invited her arch-enemy into the story she was creating in her mind. "But I thought Sonny was in trouble and I wanted to help her. I couldn't do it alone and she's the most powerful kid I know. I thought I had to tell her so I did and it turns out she was mad at him too."

Yes, Dakota couldn't be reached for comment to confirm this, but everyone reports how she was 'devastated' when Chad refused to take her out. She had a childhood crush on him – or his character more likely – and he wasn't living up to her high expectations. However, this childhood crush soon turned into an adult scandal.

"The blackout was so unfortunate that night," Marshall Pike admits, shaking his head. We could only get a short interview out of him for legal reasons and his loyal bond to the Condor family. "I keep saying to everyone that what happened that night was completely messed up because of the dark. Especially the whole Chad and Sonny thing, but I think everyone knows that now."

The final thing to cement Zora's suspicions came in the form of a very controversial scene in the Prop House; a scene that Sonny and Chad always defended, but the rest of Condor Studios did not. The lights had just gone out and the cast members were being urged to stay in the same room with candles and not to wander off. Zora Lancaster decided that she would help out Marshall by going to find Sonny. She thought her friend might be in the Prop House talking on her phone, where she usually was when there was a break.

"I would have gone with her, but I couldn't find my lipstick and of course I was freaking out over the sudden no lights thing considering it was dark outside," Tawni states, biting her lip. I can even see her eyes watering. "If I had gone with her I would have explained everything. She didn't understand what was happening and it must have looked really weird. I wish I had gone, it's one of the many things I regret."

"What did you see in the Prop House?" I ask Zora, because this will be the answer that sealed the fates of both Chad Dylan Cooper and Sonny Munroe.

"There was a tiny light coming from that room and I was suspicious because Sonny didn't know where the candles were," she said, and I can see her holding sobs back. "I knew he must've come to find her so I walked in real quick, but I thought I was too late."

"Too late for what?"

"I saw her against a wall and I thought I saw him – him – him attacking her!" Zora breaks down, covering her face and asking for a moment while she composes herself. She takes a deep breath and continues. "I was so sure that it was a look of desperation and disgust on her face. I thought he was muffling her so she wouldn't scream! I didn't think – I didn't know it could be something else! I was too young to understand it! They hated each other and back then I was sure people didn't do _that_ unless they were in love."

No one concluded that it was anything more than an attack, aside from the two involved. Everyone knows how Sonny defended Chad's actions, but many thought she was too afraid to testify against him. Zora told officers that the two became aware of her presence when she uttered Sonny's name meekly, forcing Chad to remove himself and storm past her.

"They didn't say anything," Zora says, "And for me that made him guilty. He walked past me without even looking at me and Sonny bit her lip, covering her face with her hands before brushing past me. I knew it was the final straw. I had to stop him."

How was the young girl eager to save the day going to outsmart the 'sexual predator'? Zora states that she came up with thousands of stupid plans. She didn't tell her co-stars – or anyone – what she seen in the library and when she saw Sonny and Chad together in the room, she said she felt her blood boil. She was so sure that he was forcing her to say nothing.

"I didn't tell anyone, because I thought I had it under control," Zora tells me, another tear escaping from her eye. She said she didn't see anything that stated anything other than the fact that her friend had been attacked. She said Sonny could hardly stand to be near him and that he could hardly stand to look at her. They stood apart from each other, sneaking glances at the other and biting their lips nervously, pretending to talk to other people. They also looked at her several times, silently begging her not to say anything. However, Tawni Hart tells it differently.

"I suppose when we were all in that little room that I noticed Sonny and Chad might have been hiding something," she says, afraid to smile. It should be a happy memory for her; her friend finally realising what she had learned a long time ago. "They held hands for a minute, let go and then stroked hands once more. They didn't want to make it obvious, but he smiled at her reassuringly and she tried to smile back. I had no idea what happened in the Prop House."

The chance to outsmart Chad Dylan Cooper was a lucky one for the young Zora, but an unfortunate being in the wrong place at the wrong time for Chad and Sonny.

"I feel guilty every time I think about what we did," Nico sighs; trying not to make it obvious, but I can see how much it must tear him up. "Grady and I shouldn't have left the building, but we thought we were being hilarious and rebellious. We just wanted to have fun."

"We never wanted anyone to come looking for us," Grady insists, as if he's still trying to defend himself. People don't often look to them as the cause, but one must wonder whether Zora's chance opportunity would have came had they done what they were told. "But we should have known. Even now we're still saying sorry."

"Sonny and Chad should have looked for Grady and Nico together," Tawni says, as if she's trying to impart some sort of wisdom, but no one insisted on this at the time. "I probably shouldn't have asked her to come with me, but I wanted to ask her about Chad, so he went off with some people and I guess he got separated."

His being separated from his group would mean an alibi that would never be known.

Zora was supposed to be searching with Sonny and Tawni, but instead she wandered off alone and with both girls being so wrapped up in their thoughts they didn't even notice. Tawni maintains that Sonny refused to say anything about Chad and I must ask; if she had talked would things have been different? And if she had talked, would Zora have stayed and found out the truth? There are so many 'what ifs' that I must wonder whether it was destiny that this night happened.

"I know what I saw that night," Zora nods her head, opening her eyes wide. I imagine that if she shuts them, she might see everything that she should have said. "I was walking down the dark hallways with a flashlight in my hand and that's how I saw it. I heard a noise and then I flashed it over. I saw her, him and –"

Zora couldn't continue without bursting into tears, but we all know what happened to Dakota Condor last night. Every newspaper had it written like a tempestuous soap opera and I refuse to print it again; she should never have to relive what happened, regardless of what she said. Dakota Condor was supposed to be with her father that night, but they were also separated. She had been looking for him when she was attacked. She has always said that had it not been for Zora then she might have been killed. The attack was horrid, but Zora admits that her actions afterwards were the worst of the night.

"The guy had run off and Dakota was in total shock," she says and she sounds so monotone now. I suppose she's had to detach herself in order to tell the story. I suppose after years of knowing what she did and replaying it over and over again has made her calm. "She just kept saying 'I'm sorry! I'm sorry you saw that! I can't believe he did that! Why would – who – I'm sorry! Daddy! Where is he? I'm sorry Zora!'"

"I asked her if she saw him," Zora says, looking away from me now. This is when it happens. This is when twisted reality turns into disturbing fiction. "I kept asking her and she nodded her head, crying her eyes out. She said she saw him but she didn't know who he was and that's when I did it. I said; 'you didn't see him clearly, did you?' She told me that she did, but then I pushed her; 'No, I saw him Dakota. I know who it was. It was Chad, wasn't it?'"

It was that little question that led to a big mess. It was only those two girls in that hallway and Dakota, bitter about Chad's disappointment, and knowing what he did to Sonny Munroe, had a choice to make. She could tell the truth and shame a stranger, or she could lie and shame a sick pervert. Dakota's family insist that she wasn't in her right mind and Zora confirms this. She most recently confessed that she pressured the confused and upset girl to go along with her plan. So Dakota nodded her head.

"Chad should have found us," Grady says, something Sonny Munroe said in her journal every single day. Had Chad found Nico and Grady they could have came to his defence. However, it was Nico and Grady that found Zora and Dakota crying in the hallway. Zora's flashlight was the only sign of them and it was then that the _So Random_ boys heard the awful truth about their arch-rival.

"I believed it right away because I hated the guy and Sonny had been acting weird," Tawni tells us and I can tell she feels guilty, even though she's been the calmest of everyone.

"It was hell when we heard what happened to Dakota," Marshall sighs over the phone. "I had to keep everyone calm, but they were all waiting for him like an angry mob. Everyone except Sonny; I suppose we should have known something was up when she couldn't even bring herself to talk."

"I should have told them everything at that point," Sonny told reporters the week after, her face crumpling into tears. She would spend the rest of her life regretting it; standing there waiting to hold him, waiting to ask him herself. She would never get that chance, not that night. Not for a long time. "I should have told them what happened between us! I told them he would never do that to Dakota but I should have told them about us! It's my fault!"

Chad was arrested the moment he returned from searching for the boys. To this day, it's unclear exactly what he had been doing when his boss' daughter was attacked. He says he doesn't even know; that he must have been somewhere in the building. He continued to say that he should have documented it and had he known what was going to happen he would have been more careful. How was he to know what he was involved in? He didn't stand a chance against Zora Lancaster and Dakota Condor.

"He kept on telling everyone that he didn't do it," Marshall remembers, being there when the boy was arrested, he's admitted to having nightmares about that night. "He kept screaming that he didn't do it and that his lawyers would clean this mess right up. He called to Sonny and amazingly she ran to him."

We got another extract from Sonny's journal about what happened when she walked over to Chad that night:

"_I ran over to him and stroked his cheek, knowing that everything between us had been completely messed up. I tried to apologize and so did he, but he only looked at me hopelessly. He held onto my hand and I felt a tear roll down his cheek. I told him not to worry. I told him that everything would be okay. I told him to keep his head up. I told him I loved him again. He smiled and that was when they ducked his head in the car and drove him away."_

**Author's Note: Well, what did you guys think? I've recently replaced this chapter and tried to make certain things a little clearer because a few people couldn't quite understand what was happening. You are free to message me and I just want to point out that with 'Atonement' it was more about feelings and actions, not words. I thought I'd conveyed it well but please message me if you're confused :). Review please! It is still the festive season!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews to this story. I'm so sorry it was a little difficult for most people to understand, but hopefully my PMs have cleared things up. 'Atonement' is a mature film in some aspects if you get me, so I had to be a little subtle. I promise part 2 is much easier to understand :). As I was writing it I listened to the score to 'Atonement', always good for writing a story like this. As always please read/review/favourite and all that jazz! Enjoy! :)**

Welcome to part two of my piece on what happened the night the lights went out in Condor Studios. We've already looked at what was fact and what was fiction that night. We've discovered the real reason Chad Dylan Cooper and Sonny Munroe were on edge and read about the birth of a lie that would destroy both Chad and Sonny. Now let's reveal the consequences of the suffocating lie.

It was the beginning of the end for Chad Dylan Cooper. When the lights came on, reality and the scrutinizing nature of the media set in. Everyone in the Condor Studios building was called into questioning, including Sonny Munroe, who told the truth from day one. But, it wasn't enough to save the former heartthrob from the damning evidence that would forever follow him.

"I didn't change my story," Zora admits, when asked about when she was questioned about what she witnessed. Any other child might have had an attack of conscience and one has to wonder whether her small flashlight saw the whole picture, but she was adamant. "I told them exactly what I'd told Mr Condor. It was hard though. They say that's how you know a liar; they can't ever keep their story straight so I learned to keep my story straight."

"I thought the girl was lying because she was scared of him," Detective Buskin told us, "She told us that Zora Lancaster and Dakota Condor were lying. She said that Zora had completely misunderstood something that happened between them and that things weren't as they seemed. She defended him continuously, but Zora was sticking to her story, and so was Dakota. What choice did I have? The kid didn't even have a proper alibi."

Chad Dylan Cooper was fired from Mackenzie Falls within minutes of the news reaching Mr Condor. Someone even said that he threatened to kill the boy if he ever saw him again. In his press release, he swore that Cooper would never be hired again. It was the end of his reign in Hollywood and he would never be resurrected. When news was released about what Chad had done to that little girl and what he had supposedly done to Sonny Munroe his worst nightmare came true; people hated him.

"My daughter will never watch his show again!" One of many mothers told a reporter outside Condor Studios. To this day, I don't think the media have left those studios. Are they waiting for something else to happen one night? "He is a sick young man and I hope to God he gets what he deserves."

"It's all a big misunderstanding," Chad insisted when asked about it. His lawyers begged him not to say anything, but what else could he do to further damage his case? The man those reporters spoke to was shaking and hadn't slept in weeks; the world had officially lost its heartthrob. "I promise you I would never do something like that. I promise I didn't hurt Sonny Munroe. You have to believe me."

"We were making love in the Prop House," Sonny told the reporters when Zora admitted what she thought was Sonny being attacked. When she told them, the reporters just shook their head and I think that's when the bright eyed young woman gave up. That was when she watched them turn against the man she loved. "That's what Zora saw. I wasn't being attacked. He's never attacked me. It's all a misunderstanding! Chad's innocent!"

"I begged her to tell them that he had attacked her and that the whole thing in the girls' locker room was Chad being a pervert, but she refused to do it," Tawni explains, and that's when she starts biting her manicured nails. "I think it was the easiest thing she could have said because the whole thing was really damaging our reputation and I wasn't getting nearly enough attention! Everyone was turning against Sonny and I was worried it would hurt our show if she kept defending him. She didn't stop though, she kept saying he wouldn't do that and at the time I really didn't want to believe her."

"What did you think of Zora's story?"

"I had no reason to believe she was lying," Tawni replies, and clearly she's disappointed that she did. Tawni Hart likes to be pretty and right. She's not alone though, who wouldn't believe a story quite as heartbreaking? Why would two girls lie the way they did?

Being as privileged as he was, Chad Dylan Cooper was never going to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law; a travesty had he been guilty, a small relief because he was innocent. There was uproar throughout the country, but did the Judge sense what would eventually come out? Did he find it strange that Sonny Munroe testified in Cooper's defence? Sonny's words about their complicated relationship did nothing to help Chad and he was punished. Sonny has always maintained that it killed her watching the Prosecutor smile knowing her would be boyfriend's fate. His punishment didn't mean jail, but it was a punishment nonetheless and Chad emphasised this when he agreed to it. He decided that instead of jail, he would serve his country in the best way possible: by joining the army. At the time we all thought that he was atoning for what he did, but maybe he knew that if he went to jail, the torture would be worse than being a soldier. It would be the last time we ever heard from Chad Dylan Cooper.

There was also another clause and Chad told his mother that it was the worst of all: he was to have no contact with Sonny Munroe ever again.

"I thought I had saved her, but when I watched his lawyer tell her what was to happen she burst into tears and fell into her mother's arms," Zora explains, beginning to sob again. I suppose it's hard being detached when speaking of those less fortunate than herself. "That was when I started to wonder whether I had made a mistake, but at the time I thought maybe I just felt bad because Sonny was crying. I didn't even want to consider the alternative."

Sonny Munroe walked out of Condor Studios after that. The starlet released a statement saying she didn't want to work with liars. It infuriated the public and I believe it was those very words that turned a lot of the country against her. However, she never altered what she said. Her co-stars begged her not to go and Mr Condor offered her a lot of money, but her mother maintains that she said she would rather work in the lowest paid job than work in a place where the ghost of that night haunted her. It was supposed to be a new beginning for her and I don't think she could bear walking into that Prop House, knowing what those moments of passion had led to.

"I begged her not to go," Tawni says, her lip trembling now. I wish she would just cry, because I don't want her to come across as cold, not in this interview. She's talking about how she lost her best friend and she won't even let her voice tremble. "I didn't think I would miss her so much. I didn't think I needed her because I was Tawni Hart: the star of the show. Turns out I needed her far more than I knew. But she loved him and she was pretty set on her decision. That's what I always admired about her; she would defend those she loved till the bitter end no matter what."

"It wasn't the same when she left," Nico tells me, still he looks disappointed far beyond platonic reasons. "I have to admit, that's when I started to wonder about what Zora said about her. I kept wondering why she would lie about being attacked to that extent, but we were caught between a rock and a hard place. So we let her go. We never saw her again."

So what did Sonny do next? At first no one knew, because it felt like she had disappeared from the face of the earth, but we soon learned that the brown haired beauty had moved to a small town with her mother and had enrolled herself as an assistant in the local hospital. She changed her name and she always denied being who she was. Her mother told us that she didn't want to be Sonny Munroe anymore; not after that night. So she changed her name to Allison Heller. Just as she was losing everything including her name, both Zora and Dakota gained more than they ever wanted.

"I got so famous that it almost suffocated me," Zora admits, and I think that's when the guilt came in. She and Dakota had it all, when Chad and Sonny were nowhere to be seen or heard. No one disclosed anything about Chad; it was his worst nightmare. He never wanted the world to forget him. "Dakota got a part in _Mackenzie Falls_ and I got to write books and my own spinoff show. It was crazy. That's when I felt guilty. The guilt would consume me sometimes. I don't know about Dakota; she was real busy trying to fix her dad's show." I'm still finding it difficult to sympathise with Zora Lancaster after she admits the benefits she received. It's no secret that Chad faced an excruciating time in the army. No one heard from him again, but everyone heard the stories of the treatment he received from comrades and the apparent suicide attempt he never confirmed or denied.

The fate of _Mackenzie Falls_ was unclear for a long time, with the cast and crew wondering if it could continue without its lead and its lead being the subject of such a scandal. It is Hollywood though and the show must go on, despite the 'p' word being associated with Cooper. Mr Condor made the difficult decision and decided to cast a new Mackenzie, as if the viewers would forget. But what choice did they have? The new Mackenzie made his debut and the show continued, but the shadow of its former star would always remain in the background.

I bet you're asking yourself whether Chad and Sonny ever met again. Well they did, of course they did. When Chad was soon forgotten and Sonny became nothing more than a memory they finally met again, but it wouldn't be for long. It wasn't until two years after the scandal when the two decided to meet in a small cafe in the small town where she worked. Sonny Munroe called it the most painful day of her life after the one where she watched him walk away from her forever. How do I know this? Again, we were given an extract from Sonny's journal:

_I saw Chad today after two years, although it feels like twenty. We met in a small cafe that stinks of strong coffee, but I didn't care. I had to see him again. I've missed him so much, God, 'so much' doesn't even cover how I really feel. It's been agonising and seeing him today was the one thing that should have woken me up from the dream like state I've been immersed in. I feel like I'm still in a nightmare. People die in front of me everyday, but I don't even get emotional. I envy them, because I'm stuck here._

_I don't know how we got away with it, but I will always be thankful. I thought it might be disastrous, because it certainly wasn't going to be easy. I hadn't talked to him since when the police took him away in that car and he looked at me, slowly losing all hope he had. I told him to keep his head up high, but how was I supposed to know the lies of two young girls would hold in a court of law? How was I supposed to know that every word I said that night would become invalid?_

_He was late, but I think he was too scared to come in at first. I saw him almost open the door outside, but then walk away again. When he caught my eye, he found the courage to open the door and walk towards me. I stood up and I tried to smile at him, but what good was that? He looked so tired and his eyes said so many things that words couldn't. He could barely smile at me and when I held out my hand to shake his I expected him to wrap his arms around me tightly, but he didn't touch me. He looked at my hand like it was a monster and I pulled it away._

"_Hi," I finally uttered quietly, finding the strength not to cry._

"_I got lost," he told me, but he wasn't really looking at me. His eyes caught mine, but his mind was completely elsewhere. "I'm sorry. So, what are we having?"_

_I wanted him to wrap his arms around me and promise me that everything would be fine, but instead we sat down across from each other and hid our faces behind the menus. He ordered soup and I ordered a salad. He said something about sometimes being so cold that he wished he had his mom's soup to warm him up. I don't want to think of his time in the army, not after the stories I've heard. I just wish we could escape from this world. When he was mixing his tea, I tried to place my hand on top of his, but he only stroked it for a second and pushed it away like it was causing him pain. It was everything I could do not to cry._

"_Look I've only got a couple of hours and then I have to work again," I told him. I thought it wouldn't matter, but when I looked up he had frozen._

"_Oh God that's –"he was about to continue, but I saw his voice break down. I almost managed to place my hand on top of his, but he quickly composed himself and cleared his throat. He could have just cried, because I know he wanted to. I certainly wanted to._

"_Are you and your mom staying here then?" He asked me, as if he was only an acquaintance, as if we hadn't been intimate before. Maybe if we hadn't...no, I promised myself I wouldn't regret it. It had happened now and if anything; it was the only thing I would never change about that night. I would have changed everything before and after. I would never give that little bitch a reason to taint his name._

"_Yeah in a small flat," I told him, smiling a little. "She's saving for something bigger."_

"_I told your mother that you should have stayed in Condor Studios," he insisted and I could hear his voice trembling. I didn't mean to make him feel bad. "I wouldn't have been upset if you had. You know that."_

"_I would never have stayed and you know it," I replied, upset that he would say something like that after everything I had said before we had been torn apart. "Not after what they did to you. To us."_

"_What did they do to us?" He asked me, shaking his head. I didn't even recognise him when I looked into his eyes. I don't think I wanted to, not when he looked at me like that. "If all we have is a few minutes in that Prop House then why should you have to give up everything? Why is **that** worth giving up your life Munroe?"_

"_Because that is not all we have and you know it," I insisted, my eyes watering, but he didn't know how to comfort me. I don't think he knew how to comfort himself. I took his hand again and I refused to let go of it. Today was not going to be a wasted reunion. "I told you to keep your head up. I told you that I loved you. Don't you remember? Trust me Chad if I could have, I would have talked to you everyday. Had they even let me write to you or phone you for two minutes, I would have every single day!"_

"_If I remember correctly you also told me that everything was going to be alright," Chad whispered quietly, his fist squeezing the edge of the table. That was when I finally let myself break down into sobs; he didn't need to blame me for everything, because I already did._

_I was about to let go of his hand, but before I did, he grabbed mine with the both of his and kissed it like he was kissing my lips that night. "I'm sorry Munroe. I don't mean any of it."_

"_I know," I nodded my head, but my voice was still trembling. He squeezed my hand tightly and wiped a tear away. When I looked into his eyes, he wasn't the Chad that he used to be. "It's not you. It's not me. This isn't what was meant to happen to us."  
_

"_I never thought this would happen," he said to me, a strange smile of disbelief on his face. "I didn't think I would have to do this. I'm in hell Sonny and I don't know what I did to get there. I was an asshole yeah and I put myself first when I shouldn't I guess, but I didn't think this was the punishment. I don't understand why they did that to me. I would never do that to anyone! And everyone just turned against me without hearing my side of the story! It's not fair! My life was perfect Munroe and you were the perfect next chapter! I was going to be so happy! And then –"_

"_Chad, come back," I whispered, stroking his cheeks with both my hands and kissing him softly on the lips, tears streaming down my face. It feels wonderful, but not the way it did that night. I suppose we didn't know what would happen. "Come back to me. I love you."_

"_I love you and that is the only thing that's keeping me alive," he told me, squeezing my hand. We kissed again and it felt a little more like last time. I wrapped my arms around him tightly and I promised I would see him again. I stroked his hair softly and promised him everything would be alright. We have so much to talk about. I need to save him. I need to clear his name; otherwise he'll never come back to me._

Sonny Munroe would never have the chance to save Chad, at least not in person anyway. We learned that two weeks after their romantic meeting that Chad had been killed in action when in Iraq. Sonny Munroe was said to be devastated. Her mother insists that it was his death that cast her daughter further into depression. A bomb blew up the truck he was travelling in and it was that accident that prompted Zora Lancaster to visit her old friend Sonny Munroe in the hospital she was working in. When she realised that her selfish actions and misplaced values had caused the death of an innocent young man, I suppose she had no choice.

"I hated myself after I learned what happened to him," she confesses, and she's been sobbing for a while now. I can't imagine what she must be going through. I can't imagine the pain of knowing what she does. I can't imagine living everyday knowing that it's my fault Chad was there in the first place. "I knew that I had gone too far. Dakota didn't want to do anything, but I had to come forward. I had to tell Sonny everything. He was dead! I had killed him with my lies and enough was enough."

"What happened with Sonny?"

"She called me everything she could think of," Zora replied, and a small smile comes to her face. I don't know why. "I know why and I agree with every word she said to me. She was surprised I came to see her and she mostly wanted to know why I did what I did. she kept asking me why over and over again. She couldn't get her head around it. She never did. She said she couldn't understand it and when I did explain it, it wasn't enough. She burst into tears at one point and she said; 'I loved him! It was fucked up but we were in love! I only got one interrupted session in the Prop House and a secret meeting that didn't even last two hours because we had to go! He's dead now Zora and it's all because you thought you knew what you were doing! He will never come back to me now! I loved him and I will never see him again!'" Sonny's bitter words send a chill down her spine, but then again it is difficult imagining the sweet natured brunette talking like that to anyone.

"We agreed that I would tell people the truth the moment I left," Zora explains. How was she going to convince her former partner in crime? The two had drifted apart, their dirty secret driving a wedge even between them. Zora maintains that Dakota could barely look at her knowing what they did. She said that the young Condor blamed her for taking advantage of her when she was vulnerable, an accusation Zora has only recently confirmed. "I was going to save them. I was going to clear his name."

"Did you think you and Sonny would ever reconcile?"

"I thought about it, but who wouldn't?" Zora asks me, and I have to nod my head. I suppose if it were me, I too would be thinking of the best possible outcome at a time as bleak as that. "I wanted things to be the way they were, but I think I was hopeful. I knew that if it ever did happen, I might be old by the time it did. She looked at me like dirt."

Zora spent weeks trying to negotiate with Dakota Condor, but the young girl had immersed herself in the revamped _Mackenzie Falls _and refused to change her statement. No one knows why, but I think it might have something to do with her preferring to move on. I think she might have fallen apart had she jumped into changing her story so quickly. What was Zora to do? There was no way her story was credible without the victim backing it up? How would they get Dakota on board?

Unfortunately the answer came in the death of Sonny Munroe. According to police she was walking home one night and she was shot by a desperate robber. She didn't stand a chance, but the real question is; did she want to stand a chance? She died before she reached the hospital. There are several different opinions as to what happened, even a rather chilling confession from the man who committed the crime:

"I was only going to rob her I promise, I didn't want kill her! But then she said to me; 'You might as well just shoot me! I've got nothing left! I am nothing! Shoot me! You would be doing me a favour! Just shoot me damnit!'"

That story has never been confirmed, but according to her mother it would not surprise her if Sonny felt that way. Her journal indicated several disturbing thoughts before her passing and it is these extracts that she won't release, not wanting to exploit her daughter's fragile state of mind.

The tragedy of both Chad Dylan Cooper and Sonny Munroe has only recently forced Dakota Condor and Zora Lancaster to face up to what they've both done. After Sonny's death, Dakota came forward and changed her statement, blaming Zora Lancaster for manipulating her. Poor Zora doesn't have a real reason why she did it, not now that Sonny's journal has been released. No one sympathises with her even though she insists that she was just trying to help her friend.

"It's a tragedy. I should have went to see her after she went away. I only wish that I'd done more," Tawni says to us, before ending her interview. She walks out of the room without saying goodbye, but I think she's relived enough for her whole lifetime so I walk away without saying anything more. What more can be said? I think she's said it all for America.

"Chad wasn't a bad person and Sonny only wanted to help him because she loved him. I hope that people realise that now," Grady says of Chad Dylan Cooper and Sonny Munroe. So only in death were both shows finally reunited? It's a very ironic Romeo and Juliet.

The Condor family won't even give me a statement, but their representative told reporters that Dakota regrets what she did and sends her condolences to the families of Chad and Sonny. Is that the best she could do?

"Why did you do it Zora?" I ask her, ambitiously thinking that I could get an answer out of her. Many have tried and failed, but I keep thinking I might have a shot. "Why did you lie about Chad and Sonny?"

"I already told you why," she shrugs her shoulders.

She thinks no more can be said, but I don't think that it's enough. I've never thought it was enough. She thinks she's explained the full story to me, but when I look behind her eyes, I know there's more to it. I suppose I might be taking advantage of the course I took in psychology, but I think it was more than protecting her friend; I think it was to do with competition. Chad Dylan Cooper was the leading man over _So Random_ and a child's envy can be brutal. I'm sure she did think her friend was in danger, but maybe she also saw the perfect opportunity to better herself over her rival. They always said you should suspect the quiet ones and her withdrawn attitude is the perfect example.

"I'll spend my life feeling guilty about everything," Zora tells me before I end the interview. "It doesn't matter if they put me away or not, because my head is a worse prison than anywhere on earth."

That's all well and good, and I certainly see that Zora Lancaster feels immense guilt, but I can't help but feel it isn't enough. There was no reason for that young man to die. She could have come forward sooner, especially after Sonny's testament. Then again, I can't help wonder whether Chad and Sonny were doomed from the beginning. I can't help but wonder whether Chad would have ever come back. That night changed everything; the tiniest, most insignificant decisions led to the downfall of two people. I can't help but wonder whether it was destiny.

**Author's Note: Well? What did you think? I know it was morbid, but I'm really enjoying the whole journalistic angle I've taken. I wanted to make it a full blown story, but I have an exam that I need to study for :(. Let me know what you guys think!**


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